[QUOTE] Brad Streit, general manager of KLTV in the Tyler-Longview area, said subpoenas for the television station's video can be cumbersome.

"The more frequent and the greater the distraction, the greater the impact" on his newsroom, he said. Many times the station will readily provide material that is publicly aired, but there needs to be protection if a subpoena seeks a reporter's notes or out-takes, he said.

"It's our editorial process, and not an outside government agency," he said.
QUOTE]

I assume the "editorial process privilege" will make our neighborhoods safer. This looks like a solution in search of a problem. Where are the data supporting the fear/allegation of abusive fishing expeditions or gratuitous demands for other items via the GJ subpoena? Ever hear of a motion to quash? that is the remedy for abuse of GJ process. Also-Professor Wigmore often argued against the creation or extension of privilege because it works to deny the court of otherwise relevant and highly probative evidence.

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 12-14-06 at .]

I bet that news director, and all the supporters of a journalists priviledge on G/J subpoenas, got straight "F"s in Citizenship when they were in school.

But, I bet, they also scored extremely high for "self esteem," aka narcissism.

Because, what they are saying is that their time is more important than solving a crime against the people of Texas.

When I lecture the police, I always discuss those self-centered jerks they sometimes run into when investigating a crime, who decline to give a statement because they, like Kitty Genoveses' nieghbors, "don't want to get involved."

I have a handout, which I suggest they carry with them at all times, to read to such people. It is John Donne's Meditation XVII:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continet, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

If that doesn't work, I advise them to come to me, and we'll send out a grand jury subpoena. I try to work such important people into the G/J as soon as possible--which usually turns out to be around 4:30 p.m.

[This message was edited by Terry Breen on 12-15-06 at .]